The experience

The Daunia of wheat: from the water mill to homemade pasta

Would you like to discover the stories and secrets of Puglian wheat, from traditional milling to homemade pasta? It will be a unique, fragrant and tasty way to delve into the heart of your homeland.

Our proposed day begins with an unusual workshop, in the only still-functioning watermill in Puglia. We are in the heart of Daunia, along the Cervaro River, in the ancient territory of Capitanata known as “the granary of Italy” for the richness of its produce. Here you can imagine yourself being a miller like those of yesteryear, closely following the process of processing grain in the traditional way.

A journey through time in the watermill

With us you will participate in an authentic journey through time, taking you not only among the golden fields of Bianchetto, Senatore Cappelli, Marzuola and other fine grains grown in these parts, but also along the routes of ancient and modern travelers.

We will tell you the stories of the wayfarers who traveled the Strada Regia delle Puglie – since the Romans, a post station in the connections between Puglia and Campania – and you will learn about the human and professional endeavor of a twentieth-century traveler, Luigi Grasso, who in 1916 invested in the mill the savings he had accumulated “in the Americas” driven by his love for his homeland. A passion inherited over several generations from his family, which still welcomes those who arrive among millstones, mortelles, bascules and other fascinating tools of the trade.

To frame this immersion in the ancient Apulian tradition related to wheat, our day will continue with a tasty homemade pasta workshop: you can learn how to prepare with your own hands orecchiette, troccoli and other types of fresh pasta that in these parts by tradition are never missing on the table on feast days (and that you may have tasted at your grandparents’ house, too).